The UK's famed Desert Rats armoured brigade will hold the southern city of Basra in any attack on Iraq, Ministry of Defence sources have told the BBC.

Also known as 7 Armoured Brigade, and armed with a mixture of Warrior armoured vehicles, Challenger tanks and artillery, it is the largest and most powerful of the British land formations being sent to the Gulf.

But the brigade lacks up-to-date communications and night vision equipment, making it more difficult to work closely with the better-equipped Americans.

MoD sources have told the BBC that it is provisionally expected that the brigade will get the job of holding Basra, the first major city inside Iraq, while the Americans bypass it on route for Baghdad.

I don't see this as a war of holding, more a war of taking and taking rapidly